WASHINGTON D.C. (CelebrityAccess) — On Friday, the United States Department of Commerce announced it will begin enforcing prohibitions that effectively band Chinese social media apps TikTok and WeChat in the U.S.
Starting on September 20th, U.S. companies will be prohibited from maintaining or distributing the WeChat or TikTok mobile app from app stores and provisioning content delivery networks for either service.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” said U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “At the President’s direction, we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”
The Trump administration has suggested that the two apps collect “vast swaths” of data from users, users, including network activity, location data, and browsing and search histories when the U.S. alleges the two companies provide to the Chinese government.
TikTok on Friday said it opposed the prohibitions and plans to “challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the US of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods.”
On Sunday, U.S. tech giant Oracle announced a technology partnership with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. While Oracle did not provide details about the partnership which still requires regulatory approval, the language used in the announcement suggested that Oracle would provide data services in the U.S., ostensibly preventing user data from being offshored to China.
